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computers and society

The decade of the 1980's saw an explosion in computer technology and computer usage that deeply changed society.  Today computers are a part of everyday life, they are in their simplest form a digital watch or more complexly computers manage power grids, telephone networks, and the money of the world.  Henry Grunwald, former US ambassador to Austria best describes the computer's functions, "It enables the mind to ask questions, find answers, stockpile knowledge, and devise plans to move mountains, if not worlds."   Society has embraced the computer and accepted it for its many powers which can be used for business, education, research, and warfare.

The first mechanical calculator, a system of moving beads called the abacus, was invented in Babylonia around 500 BC. The abacus provided the fastest method of calculating until 1642, when the French scientist Pascal invented a calculator made of wheels and cogs.  The concept of the modern computer was first outlined in 1833 by the British mathematician Charles Babbage.  His design of an analytical engine contained all of the necessary components of a modern computer: input devices, a memory, a control unit, and output devices.  Most of the actions of the analytical engine were to be done through the use of punched cards.  Even though Babbage worked on the analytical engine for nearly 40 years, he never actually made a working machine.

In 1889 Herman Hollerith, an American inventor, patented a calculating machine that counted, collated, and sorted information stored on punched cards.  His machine was first used to help sort statistical information for the 1890 United States census.  In 1896 Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company to produce similar machines. In 1924, the company changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation. IBM made punch-card office machinery that dominated business until the late 1960s, when a new generation of computers made the punch card machines obsolete.

The first fully electronic computer used vacuum tubes, and was so secret that its existence was not revealed until decades after it was built.  Invented by the English mathematician Alan Turing and in 1943, the Colossus was the computer that British cryptographers used to break secret German military codes. The first modern general-purpose electronic computer was ENIAC or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. Designed by two American engineers, John Mauchly and Presper Eckert, Jr., ENIAC was first used at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946.

The invention of the transistor in 1948 brought about a revolution in computer development, vacuum tubes were replaced by small transistors that generated little heat and functioned perfectly as switches. Another big breakthrough in computer miniaturization came in 1958, when Jack Kilby designed the first integrated circuit. It was a wafer that included transistors, resistors, and capacitors the major components of electronic circuitry. Using less expensive silicon chips, engineers succeeded in putting more and more electronic components on each chip. Another revolution in microchip technology occurred in 1971 when the American engineer Marcian Hoff combined the basic elements of a computer on one tiny silicon chip, which he called a microprocessor. This microprocessor the Intel 4004 and the hundreds of variations that followed are the dedicated computers that operate thousands of modern products and form the heart of almost every general-purpose electronic computer.

By the mid-1970s, microchips and microprocessors had reduced the cost of the thousands of electronic components required in a computer. The first affordable desktop computer designed specifically for personal use was called the Altair 8800, first sold in 1974.  In 1977 Tandy Corporation became the first major electronics firm to produce a personal computer.  Soon afterward, a company named Apple Computer, founded by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs, began producing computers.  IBM introduced its Personal Computer, or PC, in 1981, and  as a result of competition from the makers of clones the price of personal computers fell drastically.  Just recently Apple Computer allowed its computers to be cloned by competitors.

During this long time of computer evolution, business has grasped at the computer, hoping to use it to increase productivity and minimize costs.  The computer has been put on assembly lines, controlling robots.  In offices computers have popped up everywhere, sending information and allowing numbers to easily be processed.  Two key words that apply today are downsizing and productivity.  Companies hope the increase worker productivity, meaning less working which then allows for downsizing.  The computer is supposed to be the magic wand that will make productivity shoot through the roof, but in some cases the computer was a waste of time and money.

Reliance Insurance is an example of computer technology falling flat on its face, wasting a great deal of money, while producing little or no results.  "Paper Free in 1983"  was the slogan Reliance used because the it had just spent millions of dollars to put computers everywhere and network them.  The employees had E-mail and other programs that where to eliminate paper and increase productivity.  The company chiefs sat back and waited for a boom in productivity that never arrived.

Other examples of the disappointments of computer are not hard to find.  Citicorp bank lost $200 million dollars developing a system in the 1980's that gave up to the  minute updates on oil prices.  Knight-Ridder tried to develop a home shopping network on the television, and lost $50 million.  Wang laboratories almost went under when they put all of their resources toward developing imaging technology that no one wanted.  Ben & Jerry's ice cream put in an E-mail system and out of 200 employees less than 30% used the system.  Everything attempted then is currently very common today; on-line services provide stock and commodities quotes, QVC is a home shopping channel on cable television, almost every picture in a magazine has been retouched with imaging technology, and even JRHS has an E-mail system that seems to be valuable.

Other corporations have seized computer technology and used it to reduce costs, but usually the human factor is lost. The McDonalds fast food chain is an example of a company that has embraced computers to help productivity and lower operating costs.  The McDonalds kitchen has become a computer timed machine, "You don't have to know how to cook, you don't have to know how to think.  There's a procedure for everything and you just follow the procedure" .  The workers have in essence become robots controlled by the computer to achieve maximum productivity.  The computer knows the procedure and alerts the worker of events in the procedure and all the worker must do is execute what the beeper of buzzer means.  With such little knowledge of the making of the food, workers have become disposable, "It takes a special kind of person to be able to move before he can think.  We find people like that and use them until they quit." .

McDonalds managers work even more closely with the computers that control them.  The computer generates a graph of expected business and tells the manager how many people to schedule and when, all the manager does is fill in the blanks with names.  McDonalds computers also keep close track of sales and expenditures, "The central office can check . . . how many Egg McMuffins were sold on Friday from 9 to 9:30 two weeks ago or two years ago, either in an entire store or at any particular register."  .  The main  things computers do in a manual job is to speed things up, "Thinking generally slows this operation down." , and for this reason computers have made manual jobs ones of extreme monotony and no creativity.

White collar jobs have remained virtually the same, computers have just helped to enhance creativity and attempted to raise productivity.  E-mail, word processors, spreadsheets, and personal organization programs are widely used by white collar workers.  These programs help to make impressive presentations, communicate, and keep track of everything  so the worker can get more done, and therefore less workers are needed, dropping costs.  This has not happened, over the last 30 years white collar worker productivity has remained the same, while blue collar productivity has almost quadrupled.  This is due mainly to the fact that white collar workers are required to think and adapt to situations quickly, which computers at the moment are unable to due, they only follow code to give a planned response.  The blue collar job requires less knowledge and skill, and so is easily replaceable by a computer.

Computers though have not been a failure in business, they allow information to be shared very quickly.  The home office is a product of computers, people can work from home instead of going into an office.  This has not become very popular due to the lack of touch between people, the loss of contact.  It is the human factor that helps to make business run, the random thought that saves the day, something a computer is incapable of doing.  Computers may help quicken business, but they will never replace people, only reduce their knowledge or creativity by automating the process.

Another form of computers is attempting to totally eliminate people from the picture.  Expert systems are large mainframe computers that have the knowledge of an expert individual loaded into it, and makes decisions that are very complex.  An expert in field is chosen and interviewed for sometimes over a year about their job and how they make decisions.  All of this knowledge is refined and put into a computer.  Another person then enters some statistics into the finished machine and magically a large printout will come out of the machine in minutes with the answers.  Expert systems are used mainly in large investing corporations, but some have been developed to help diagnose diseases.  The hope is one day a patient will lie down and a couple of sensors and probes will go over the body and then a computer printout will have the name of your illness and the drug to cure it.  Expert systems have been used very little mainly due to their high price and because of the lack of trust in them.

Computers have also reached into other places besides business, schools.  Children sit in front of computers and are drilled or taught about certain subjects selected by the teacher.  This method of teaching has come under fire, some people believe the computer should be a tool not a teacher, while others believe why learn from a normal teacher when a computerized version of the best can teach.  The technology of today could allow for a teacher in another country to teach a class through video confrencing.  The attempts to spread computer technology into the class room have produced results and taught lessons as to how computers should be applied.

The Belridge school district in McKittrick California was one of the most technological school districts in America.  Every student had two computers, one at school and one at home, which contained many brand new teaching programs.  The high school had a low powered television station that broadcasted every day.  The classes were small and parent involvement was high.  Even with all of these wonderful things one-third of the first grade class was below the national average in standardized tests after the first year.  Parents were enraged that after all of  the money spent nothing had happened, that the technology hadn't made the children become smarter, and so all of the computers were gone the next year and traditional teaching was put back in place.

Belridge is an extreme example of people expecting the computers to do magic and make the children learn faster and better, much like companies hoped to raise productivity.  The children were left to learn from the computer, which they did, but nothing changed things actually got worse.  One parent realized, ". . . good teachers are the heart and soul of teaching." , because computers can only present facts and explain them to a certain extent, where as a good teacher can explain to the student in many ways.

The US has about 2.7 million computers for 100,000 schools, a ratio of about 1 computer for every 16 students.  Experts say that, "Computers work best when students are left with a goal to achieve. . ." , and students are allowed to achieve this goal with proper direction from a teacher.  After many attempts in the 1980's to put computers into the classroom a Presidential Plan was drawn up:

1.  Give computers to teachers before students.

2.  Move them out of the labs and into classrooms.

3.  One workstation at least for every two or three students.

4.  Still use flashcards for practice.

5.  Give teachers time to restructure around computers.

6.  Expect to wait 5 to 6 years for change.

 

This plan was to help guide the use of computers into the classroom, and maximize their ability as learning tool.  The computer will enhance the future classroom, but it cannot be expected to produce results quickly.  One thing the use of computers in the classroom will help with is the fear of computers and their ability to confuse people.  Early exposure to computers will help increase computer use in society years from now.

The biggest network of connected computers is broadly referred to as the internet, information superhighway or electronic highway.  The internet was started by the Pentagon as a way for the military to exchange information through computers using modems.  Over the years the internet has evolved into a public resource containing limitless amounts of information.  The main parts of the internet are FTP (file transfer protocol), gopher, telnet, IRC (internet relay chat), and the world wide web.  FTP is used to download large files from one computer to another quickly.  Gopher is much like the world wide web, but without the graphical interface.  Telnet is a remote computer login, this is where most of the hacking occurs.  The IRC is just chat boards where people meet and type in there discussions, but IRC is becoming more involved with pictures of the people and 3-D landscapes.  Besides IRC, these internet applications are becoming obsolete due to the world wide web.

The most popular of the internet applications is the world wide web or WWW.  It is a very graphical interface which can be easily designed and is easy to navigate.  The WWW contains information on everything and anything possibly imaginable.  Movies, sound bytes, pictures, and other media is easily found on the WWW.  It has also turned into a business venture, most large businesses have a "page" on the WWW.  A "page" is a section of the WWW that has its own particular address, usually a large business will have a server with many "pages" on it.  A sample internet address would be "http://www.sony.com/index.html", the http stands for hypertext transfer protocol, or how the information will be transferred.  "www.sony.com" is the serve name, it is usually a mainframe computer with a T-1 up to T-3 fiber optic telephone line.  The server is expensive not because of the computer but because of the telephone line, a T-1 line which transfers up to 150 megabytes of information per second costs over $1000 a month, while a T-3 line transferring 450 megabytes of information can cost over $10,000 a month.  The "index.html" is the name of the page on the server, of which the server could have hundreds.

The ability for all of this information has made for a virtual society.  Virtual malls, virtual gambling, virtual identities, and even virtual sex have sprung up all over the internet wanting your credit card number or your First Virtual account number.  First Virtual is a banking system which allows so much money to be deposited at a local bank to be spent on the internet.  Much of the internet has become a large mail order catalog.  With all of these numbers and accounts, questions come up about the security of a persons money and private life, which aren't easily answered.

Being safe is a new craze today, protection from hackers and other people who will steal personal secrets and then rob someone blind, or protection from pornography or white supremacists or millions of other things on the internet.  The recent communications bill that passed is supposed to ban pornography on the internet, but the effects aren't apparent.  There are still many US "pages" with pornography that have consent pages warning the user of the pornography ahead.  Even if the US citizens stopped posting pornography, other nations still can and the newsgroups are also international.  Programs such as Surf Watch and Internet Nanny have become popular, blocking out pornographic sites.  The main problem or beauty of the internet is the lack of a controlling party, "It has no officers, it has no policy making board or other entity, it has no rules or regulations and is not selective in terms of providing services." .  This is a society run by the masses that amounts to pure anarchy, nothing can be controlled or stopped.  The internet is so vast many things could be hidden and known to only a few, for a long time if not forever.  The real problem with controlling the interenet is self control and responsibility, don't go and don't see what you don't want to, and if that amounts to a boring time, then don't surf the net.

When speaking of computers and the internet one person cannot go unmentioned, Bill Gates, the president of Microsoft.  Microsoft has a basic monopoly on the computer world, they write the operating system and then the applications to run of the system, and when everyone catches up, they change the version.  Bill Gates started the company in the early 1980's with DOS, or Disk Operating System, which just recently was made obsolete by Windows 95.  Bill Gates has now just ventured into the internet and is now tangling with Netscape, the company with the Internet monopoly.  Netscape gives away its software for free to people who want the basic version, but a version with all of the bells and whistles can be purchased.  Microsoft is hard pressed to win the internet battle, but will take a sizable chunk of Netscape business.  Bill Gates will likely keep running the software industry, with his recent purchase of Lotus, a popular spreadsheet, he further cornered the market.

Computers are one of the most important items society posses today.  The computer will be deeply imbedded in peoples lives even more when the technology progresses more and more.  Businesses will become heavily dependent as video confrencing and working from home become increasingly more feasible, so businesses will break down from large buildings into teams that communicate electronically.  Schools may be taught by the best teachers possible and software may replace teachers, but that is highly unlikely.  The internet will reach into lives, offering an escape from reality and an information source that is extremely vast.  Hopefully  society will further embrace the computer as a tool, a tool that must be tended to and assisted, not left to do its work alone.  Even so computers will always be present, because the dreams of today are made with computers, planned on computers, and then assembled by computers, the only thing the computer can't do is dream, at least right now.

 

About the Author

Itech troubleshooter is an advanced web development, high skilled professional software Solution Company located in New Delhi founded by, PRABHAKAR MISHRA in the year 2008.The company provides vast range of services to each and every customer in reaching their respective targeted spectators and their valuable information in fix and on steady affordable price. Today, you can easily get a lot of quality services by this company on just dialing a call to the company which includes services like website designing , web application development , Application development , Maintenance , Re-engineering , Flash development , SEO , SEO Services , Computer AMC , Computer Networking , Wireless Networking , Data Recovery , ERP Solution .

Is Mansfield University a good school to obtain a CS degree?

Is Mansfield University in Tioga County Pennsylvania a good college to obtain a Computer Sciences degree from? The location is ideal and it also offers a minor in mathematics without any other courses/coursework. On top of that they offer internships with companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft.

Also what kind of SAT scores and grades are needed to gain entrance to the school?

Thanks a ton!

Mansfield University is a great school for a CS degree. Strong SAT scores in Math and Critcal Reading and a "B" average is recommended.

Microsoft Pennsylvania
Penn State Abington students meet Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Fundamental Concept of Information Technology

A computer is an electrically powered device or set of devices which works under the control of a stored programme. It automatically receives data, process data and by controlling the whole process of operation, the desired goal is established. Hence a computer is 1. a data processor, a storage location and a data processor. The following concepts may be used for the identification of a computer:

•Literally, the term computer means equipment that can compute.

•The computer is a combination of electronic devices used to process data.

•In the computer all types of data is converted to numbers. The computer can only work with numbers, not letters, sounds or pictures. All forms of data are converted to numbers for processing.

•Computers can receive, analyze, store information and produce reports.

•Computers are useful for accurate and fast processing of accounts.

History of Computers

•On about 3000 BC ‘Abacus’ was invented in China which was the earliest calculator. It was used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

•On the 17th century a number of instruments were invented which could be used as calculator.

•On the 18th century a French scientist named Jacquard, invented an automated loom that could receive designs from punched cards.

•At a certain step of perpetual research, came Charles Babbgae with unique ideas. He is often called the father of modern computers. He invented ‘Differential Engine’ on 1812.

• He performed fast calculations with this machine. On 1833 he planned to make a ‘Analytical Engine’. This research did not go far due to hindrance of promised fund by the Royal Society of England.

• Later Lady Ada Augusta invented a number of techniques, which utilized the concept of the Analytical Engine. She was the daughter of the English poet Lord Byron and a close friend of Babbage. She invented the techniques required to solve mathematical problems, step by step. This is why she is considered as the first computer programmer in the world.

• On 1944, A machine called ‘Mark-1’ was built under the supervision Professor Howard Eken of Harvard University of USA. This machine was 51 feet wide, 8 feet high. It had 5000 miles of electric cable and combination 7.5 lakh electronic parts. Though a dinosaur among today’s neat compact computers, this was the first computer of the first computer-age (1944-50).

• The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) was built in the University of Pennsylvania on 1946; it consisted of almost eighteen thousand valves. It was made for the Ministry of Defense. In 1948 transistors were introduced, which ultimately replaced the valves. Transistors are miniature electronic switches that functions the same as the electronic valves and then some. 1958 saw the introduction of Integrated Circuits, popularly known as IC, which made the huge availability of computers today possible.

• Then came Gordon Moore on 1971 with his revolutionary invention of microprocessors.

• After the microprocessors, the progress was fast. IBM of USA introduced Microcomputers, which is now popularly known as PC or Personal Computer.

• The speed of data processing depends on how powerful the processor is. Currently processors with speed above 500 MHz is available in the market.

• The latest magic in the computer world today is the Internet; virtually the whole world can be reached through this little box with an Internet connection.

• We conclude, on the note that the computer has become an inseparable part of the modern civilization.

Hardware

• The term hardware refers to the part of the computer that you can touch namely the various types of equipment and peripherals are the hardware of a computer. For example: CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc.

• Each type of hardware of the computer has a specific or several functions. For example: keyboard and mouse are used to input data into the computer. The monitor is used to display the output. The block diagram below lists the most common hardware of the computer.

Inn view of the above light, it is evident the following hard ware devices may be conceptually exemplified.

Device: All hardware peripherals of a computer are called devices.

Input device: A device through which data is fed into the computer. For example: keyboard, mouse, and scanner.

Process Unit: After the data is entered into the computer it is processed to produce outputs. Processing is done by the microprocessor.

Output Device: The devices through which we can receive the processed information are the output devices. For example: printer and monitor.

Memory

Memory is the computer’s electronic scratch pad. Programs are loaded into and run from memory. Data used by program is also loaded into memory for fast access.

RAM (Random Access Memory): The most common type of memory is RAM. It is volatile memory, as it needs constant supply of power. When you turn off a computer, everything in RAM disappears.

ROM (Read Only Memory): This is nonvolatile memory. Data and instructions are permanently programmed in this type of memory.

Storage Unit

It is possible from a computer to function with just processing, memory, input and output devices. To be really useful, however, it also needs a place to keep program files and related data when it is not using them. The purpose of storage is to hold data.

The device that holds a disk is called a disk drive. Some disks are built into the drive and are not meant to be removed. For example: Hard disk. Other kinds of drives let you to remove and replace disks, such as a floppy disk drive.

Introduction to some common computer hardware

Processing Unit The brain of the computer. This is where data and instructions in are processed to produce meaning ful information.

Hard Disk Fixed, built-in storage unit of the computer.

Floppy Disk Removable storage unit of the computer. This device has much less storage capacity than hard disks.

CD ROM Also a removable storage unit. This device has larger storage capacity than the floppy disks. It is a rounded thin plastic disk. A CD-ROM drive is required to read from CD-ROMs.

Monitor This output device is like a television screen that displays output such as a text that you are typing.

Keyboard An input device. It is an electronic version of the typewriter machine. There are special function keys, alphabets, numbers assembled on the keyboard. There can be 101 to 105 numbers of keys on a keyboard.

Mouse An input device. You can click, double click and drag with a mouse. Click is when you press a button on the mouse. Double click is clicking twice in rapid succession. Drag is to press a mouse button and ‘drag’ the mouse physically as the button remains pressed.

Printer Output device that produces hardcopy outputs. It prints out the output such as processed data, reports on paper. There are different types of printers available at different price ranges. Most commonly used nowadays are dot-matrix printer and Laser printer.

Floppy Disk Drive Used to read from and write to floppy disks. It is like an audio cassette player. You must insert the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive. It can read from and write to the floppy disk.

CD ROM Drive Used to read from CD ROMs. It cannot write to a CD ROM.

CD ROM Writer Used to read from and write to CD ROMs.

Scanner Input device used to scan image or text and put a digitized version into the computer’s storage unit.

Speaker Output device for sound or acoustic data. Same as a speaker in the audio cassettee player.

Modem This is a communication device used to access the Internet or other computers through phone line.

Introduction to power appliances normally used with computers

Stabilizer We are all familiar with the voltage up-downs in our electric supply. Both High and low voltage can be harmful to the complex electronic circuits and devices inside the computer. A stabilizer is used to produce a static supply of power in the face of disturbance in the actual supply. So using a stabilizer with your expensive computer is very much recommended.

UPS uninterrupted Power Supply. This appliance is useful in face of regular power failures. It generates power when the main power supply fails and gives a user some time to shut down the computer properly.

Hardware and Software

Let us discuss these two commonly used terms in the computer literature by comparing them with a common example, the audio cassette player. What do we do when we want to listen to our favorite songs? We first insert an audiocassette into the player and switch the player on. Then press the ‘Play’ button, and consequently the music starts. But notice that we listen to the song, but we cannot ‘touch’ the song. In the computer literature the player and audiocassette are HARDWARE and the song itself is the SOFTWARE. The difference between the song and software is that while, song has no control over running of the cassette player, software is the main controlling force of the computer’s hardware. Without the software the computer hardware is just a dead machine.

Another relative point to mention here is that computer cannot automatically perform a task. It can only do jobs that have been programmed into its memory and programmers do all the programming. Programmers are the people who write codes or instructions for the computer to understand and work accordingly. The information and instructions that have been fed into the computer’s memory to perform a specific task is collectively known as software. The computer can be programmed to do almost anything with the right set of instructions and codes; i.e. there can be numerous types of software, one or more for each type of task imaginable. For example software can be specially written to draft letters, memos or documents. Another type of software can be developed to do your daily accounts, i.e. addition, subtraction, multiply and division. Special types of software are written just to keep the computer running. They create environments to enable other software to run.

We can define software as follows:

•Software is sets of data and instructions to control the computer hardware, to perform various tasks such as producing complex mathematical and logical results.

Categories of Software

Most software falls into two major categories: system software and application software. One major type of system software, called operating system software, tells the computer how to use its own components.

Application software tells a computer how to accomplish specific tasks for the user such as word processing (MS Word), drawing (MS Paint), spreadsheet (MS Excel), presentation (MS PowerPoint) etc.

BIOS

When you turn on a computer, it goes through several steps to prepare itself for use. The first step is a self-test. The computer identifies the devices that are attached to it, counts the amount of memory available and does a quick checkto see whether the memory is functioning prperly. This routine is called the BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and is located in read-only memory (ROM).

Operating System

Next the computer looks in the floppy disk drive and then the hard disk drive for a special program called Operating System. The operating system tells the computer how to interact with the user and how to use devices such as the disk drives, keyboard and monitor. Windows98 is an operating system software.

Application Software

A computer that is running only on operating system is not very useful because the operating system exists mostly for the benefit of the computer. Other programs are required to make the computer useful for people. Application software help users accomplish specific tasks. Appllication software has been written to do almost every task imaginable., from word processing to selecting a college to attend.

Windows

By now you must have some idea about what software is and its types. All software are developed on the basis of a predetermined objective. For example: Microsoft is a software company that has developed a number of window-based user-friendly software with the objective that a novice user should be able to use the computer to his/her advantage. Windows98 is one of its operating system software that is very user friendly. In all steps of the way, it helps the user with messages and hand signals.

Running a program in Windows

After you switch on your computer it shows various start-up messages and stops after it reaches a certain screen, for user intervention. This screen is your ‘Desktop’. You must click on the Satrt button to see the contents and programs stored in your computer. Clicking on any of these programs will make that program ‘run’. As an example let us run the Microsoft Word:

•Click Start button

•Click Programs

•Click Microsoft Word

Control Panel

Clicking on the Start button shows an option ‘Settings’. There is an option there named ‘Control Panel’. This folder contains programs that control the software and hardware of the computer.

Please be careful in using in any of these programs. Control Panel programs should only be worked on by a liitle more experienced people than the beginner.

List of some tasks the control panel programs can perform:

•Control Date and Time of computeAdd or remove new programs

•Install new hardware

•Install new printer

•Background look of the Desktop can be changed

•Change the configuration and speed of the mouse

•Others

Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer in its simplest definition, is the table of contents of a computer.

We can see at a glance, all the drives, folders and files that are contained in the computer, through using the Windows Explorer. A user can organize his/her files and decide which files should go into which folder, create new folders, cut or coy and paste files and folders etc. Also, a file can be copied to or from the floppy disk from or to the hard disk.

How to open Windows Explorer:

Method:

Windows Explorer Environment:

Folder

Folders are like file cabinets. You can organize your files in different folders as you choose. You can create folders within a drive; sub-folders can be created within a folder.

Creating Folders Open Windows Explorer. Click on File menu. Click New. Click Folder. This is illustrated in the figure below. The newly created folder is given the name ‘New Folder’ by default. You can rename it with a more relevant name and press Enter.

Delete a Folder or File

As mentioned before, to delete a file or folder is the easiest thing to do in a computer, so be extra careful of what you are deleting.

•Open Windows Explorer

•Click the file or folder you wish to delete

•Press the Delete key of the keyboard

Restoring a deleted file or folder

Deleted files and folders are actually moved to another part of computer har disk, they are not completely erased from hard disk. Deleted files and folders are kept in this separate portion of hard disk, which is called a Recycle Bin. You can restore a deleted file by clicking Restore in the Recycle Bin File menu. If you, however, Empty the Recycle Bin, deleted files and folders will be lost forever.

Restoring Deleted File or Folder from Recycle Bin

•Double Click on the Recycle Bin Icon of your Desktop.

•Recycle Bin window appears

•Click the file or folder you deleted and want to restore

•Click File Menu

•Click Restore

The figure below might make the steps clearer:

Cut, copy and paste

Preface: In our country, especially in Dhaka city, we are all too familiar with postering on the walls. For this, the posters are prepared in the press, then pasted using glue, to the walls. After pasting a poster to a particular place we might change our mind and take it off to paste it somewhere else, or we can make more copies and paste them to other walls. The postering aspect has amazing similarity to the cut, copy and paste options of a computer application.

For example: if you are preparing a document in the computer using a word processing software, you may come across a need to use the same word or phrase in a number of places. In which case, you can copy this word or phrase and paste it to various places of the document, instead of typing it so many times. You can paste a text as many times as you want after making a ‘copy’. Copy and paste also applies in case of files and folders in Windows Explorer. You can copy a file or folder and make as many copies of the same file in other folders or sub-folders, as you want.

If you want to remove a file or folder from a particular drive or folder and put it in a different folder or drive, just ‘cut’ it and ‘paste’ it to the place you want to put it. Similarly in our example of the document, you can ‘cut’ a word or phrase and paste it to other place(s) which will remove the word or phrase from the first place and move it to the second.

When you cut or copy a file, folder, text or image, it is temporarily saved in a place in the memory called the clipboard. When you click the paste option, the file, folder or text from the clipboard is pasted. This is why you can make exact copies of the same text, files, folders as many times as you wish.

Definitions, Terminology and Method of Cut, Copy and Paste

‘Select’ is the key word in the process of cut, copy and paste. To select is to mark a text, file, folder that must be copied or cut. You can click and drag the moue to select a text or click a file or folder to select. The selected text, file or folder will take on a different color (commonly black) to indicate a selection.

‘Cut’ as mentioned before, is the process of moving the selected text, file or folder from one place to another. In the Windows Explorer select a file; click on Edit menu or the toolbar and then click the Cut or copy option. In a word processor, follow the same steps.

‘Copy’ is the process of making replicas of a file, folder or text. The selected file, folder or texts remain in its own places and an exact replica is created on the clipboard. Clicking on ‘Paste’ toolbar or Edit-menu option moves this replica from the clipboard to the clicked place.

‘Clipboard’ is the place where the cut or copied information is temporarily stored.

To copy a file to Floppy Disk

•Open Windows Explorer

•Insert a floppy disk into the Floppy Drive

•Select the file you want to copy

•Click the Copy Button on the toolbar

•Click the A: drive

•Click Paste tool bar button

File Management

To find important files quickly, you should organize your files in easily detectable folders. For example: supposing there is number of files for the employees of an office, which contains the employee’s personal information, salary, previous experience etc. You can keep these files in a folder named ‘Employee’. Create sub-folders such as Personal, Salary, Experience etc and keep relevant files in those sub-folders. You should take a little time and thought to organize your files and folders, same as keeping organized records and files in an office.

Find a file or Folder

Sometimes it is easy to lose a file among a hundred other similar files. You can use the Find option in the Windows Explorer in such situation. But the catch here is that you must remember something about the file, such as its first 4 letters or last 4 letters or the date it was created or the folder it was created in or its size or some of the text contained in the file.

•Open Windows Explorer

•Click Tools menu

•Click Find

•Click on File or Folder option

•A Find dialogue box appears

•Type the info you remember about the file or folder

•Click Find Now Button

How to give electrical connection to Computers

To protect your computer from power surges, frequent power failures and other electric disturbances you should use stabilizers. Instead of directly connecting your precious appliances to the main power line, connect the computer to the stabilizer and the stabilizer to the wall socket. UPS are used as a temporary power source for the computer in case of power failure. The figure below shows the flow of electric connection among a computer, UPS and stabilizer.

How do Computers work?

To illustrate how a computer processes data we can use an analogy between computers and the human brain. The five human sense receivers are the input devices of the human brain. The eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose receives different types of sensations and sends them to the brain for processing. Similarly the keyboard, mouse, scanner and other input peripherals of the computer collects different types of data and sends them to the processor to be processed.

The human output devices such as talking through mouth or physical gestures can be compared to the monitor or printer of the computer, which shows or prints the processed result from the processor.

Users and Phobia

Now that you have an idea on how to electrically connect the computer the next step is to work with it. Unfortunately, like all other new technologies, the computer has its own set of phobias for its users. Realistically, as we have pointed out before, to run a computer can be as easy as switching on the television. You can only do physical harm to a computer by breaking it or one of its components. The software that you will be using, can be itself a trainer/instructor for a beginner like you. This is because most computer software are developed in a user-friendly manner and has in-built help-option to assist or guide you through your ordeal. So don’t be abashed or apprehensive, switch on the ‘magic-box’ and get started.

Switch on the computer

See if the electric connections are as it should be and press the power button of the CPU. The computer screen will show various start up info and messages and will stop after a reaching a state and wait for your intervention.

Shutdown and switch off the computer

There is a specific set of steps that a user must follow to shut down the computer. Otherwise there maybe problems like the software or hardware can get corrupted. Always follow the steps outlined below.

When we click on the YES button a message will appear “Its Now Safe to Turn of Your Computer”. After seeing these messages press the power button to switch off the computer. Now switch off the UPS and stabilizer and last but not least, switch off the wall socket i.e. the main power supply. As highlighted above, I have tried to explain the basics of personal computing skills. The computer works on binary system. While sending input, we use input device. In this case, we use Mouse and Keyboard. We send message in the form of command which are duly processed in the computer by way of creating the digital electronic signal.

About the Author

Kh. Atiar Rahman is an experienced author. He is a prolific author.

Microsoft Pennsylvania